Stephen and Elaine Biddulph

2 - 8 NOVEMBER 2015

The only major events for us this week besides missionary work were our senior FHE on Monday evening, driving Elaine to a visiting teaching appointment that took 4 hours, a trip to Wiesbaden military base on Thursday, a birthday dinner at a restaurant Friday evening, and stake conference on Saturday and Sunday. You can see how exciting our weeks are. There was a time not so long ago that I would have thought such a week was only for "old folks." Well, I guess we're there.

Jewish Mass Grave in Frankfurt Hauptfriedhof

William Blacoe presented our FHE on the Holocaust with an emphasis on the Germans who performed heroically good acts towards the Jews here in Frankfurt. William has lived in Frankfurt for 34 years and has a wealth of knowledge about almost everything here. We started with Anne Frank who was born right here on Marbachweg just two blocks from where we live. The presentation included Otto Schindler, famous for "Schindler's List" and is credited with saving something like 6000 Jews. As a former SS officer in Germany, this is quite astounding and unprecedented in German history. The bottom line was, "Not all Germans were Nazis and not all Nazis were Germans. It brought back to us the incredible human suffering of the Jews and those who tried to help them. I thought of Isaiah's messianic prophecy: "Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb? yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee. Behold, I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands; thy walls are continually before me" (Isa 49:15-16).

Tuesday evening, what was going to be perhaps a 2-hour trip for visiting teaching (I was Elaine's

Europe Area Medical Team

driver) turned out to be a 4-5 hour fiasco that took us over about every little country road in central Germany. All this to visit one sister for 30 minutes. But it was a pleasant visit, Elaine got to show interest and concern for this good sister, and I got to play with their cat, Patch!

On Wednesday we made our monthly visit to the commissary and PX at the Wiesbaden military base and signed up for medical care at the health center. The opportunity to be treated at Wiesbaden (30-40 minutes away) rather than Landstuhl-Ramstien (2 hours away) just came open. It is fun to be on an American military base again. Old Home! We did that during our mission in Hawaii. It is a great blessing for us.

On Friday evening, the medical team at Europe Area Headquarters got together and went to a restaurant to celebrate four of us who had birthday in November. It is with great regret that I must report that on 21 November I turn the big 70. That's right! I'm a certified ancient of days. I'm a grandpa and great grandpa! The light ahead of me at the end of the tunnel is much, much closer than the light behind me at the start of the tunnel. In fact, the light behind me is invisible now. I hear from reliable sources (my brother) that magically it all hits the fan at 70. Everything that can or will go wrong, that has been lying latent in your genes, suddenly leaps into motion. I've entered the time of my life of enduring! Glad I have the pure knowledge of the restored gospel and plan of salvation to keep me moving.

Stephen on daily walk

Saturday and Sunday was stake (Pfahl) conference in Frankfurt. Elder Leimert, the area seventy, presided. It was a series of good and inspirational meetings. The Frankfurt temple is now closed for 2 years for renovation, and many people find it hard to drive to the Swiss Temple. Our stake president invited us to continue to qualify for temple recommends. He said that a recommend doesn't just allow us to go to the temple, but it also qualifies us for the spirit and the joy and blessings of righteousness. I think we can make our homes and our own lives temples. Paul speaks of the body as being the temple of God. We can seek to keep them clean and undefiled from the evils of this world. We can always remember and recite to ourselves the temple ordinances and covenants given us.

Our drive back home from Darmstadt (conference location) was through astoundingly beautiful countryside and forests (Wald) of bronze-amber forests and green fields. How beautiful Germany is in the fall.

Dinner with Br and Schw Schott (Mühlheim)

Our work with missionaries is

never-ending. Mission Presidents continually call for advice and to counsel about a missionary in crisis. I truly enjoy being of help. I'm working with many who struggle with depression, discouragement, and anxiety. Those who struggle with being perfectionists and get so troubled about being the best they can be, sometimes get discouraged and say that they have prayed about it and feel that it is the right thing to return home. I often say to them, "God does not change. He called you to this mission. He has not changed his mind about you serving this mission, although you may have changed yours. Where is your faith? Why do you not believe and trust in the Savior to qualify you for this work? Why do you obsess about your own inadequacies or because things don't go exactly as you thought they would? Do you not know that this is the Savior's work and it requires his strength and capacity? This is not about you; this is about the Spirit and your willingness to trust in the spirit. Ah! Life goes on. We love it here.